4 ms·

Xserve was always kind of a loss. Wrote a piece about it a number of years back. It became pretty much a commodity business--which isn't Apple.

by ghaff 10mo ago

no_wizard 10mo ago
I always wondered what they were hoping for with their server products back when they had them. Consumers and end users benefit greatly from the vertical integration that Apple is good at. This doesn't translate with servers. Commodity hardware + linux is not only cheaper, its often easier, and was definitely less proprietary. Its also a race to the bottom type scenario. Apple would have never been able to keep up with server release schedules. Was an interesting but ultimately odd moment of history for servers.
- ghaff 10mo ago
  Companies were still figuring out Linux with servers at the time. Xserve seemed like it might be something of interest to at least academia but Apple never really had their heart in it as I wrote at the time.
- ghaff 10mo ago
  Pre-iPhone and pre-Intel Mac, Apple was experimenting with a lot of things. The iPod wasn't a clear initial win--and the iPhone wasn't either. A lot of the success happened in retrospect.
pstuart 10mo ago
With Thunderbolt 5 and M5 Ultras, Apple could be building lower cost clusters that could possibly scale enough while keeping a lower power budget. Obviously that can't compete with NVIDIA racks, but for mobile consumer inference maybe that would be enough?
- raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
  Apple just announced it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248644 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248644
simondotau 10mo ago
How is server hardware more "commodity" than MacBook laptops? Both are quite sophisticated and tailored to their audience in nuanced ways; both are manufactured at scale and face fierce competition. I don't think Xserve was a uniquely commodity business, it was a B2B service business--which isn't Apple.
- JSR_FDED 10mo ago
  It’s absolutely a commodity. The exact reason IBM sold their server division to Lenovo in 2014.
  - mschuster91 10mo ago
    I'd rather say IBM got cannibalized by "financial engineers", this wasn't a decision made because of "it's a commodity". There used to be a time when IBM actually meant quality (that's where "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" came from, after all), but nowadays? A loooot of stuff is either sold (Thinkpad went to Lenovo, Lotus Notes to HCL), faded into irrelevancy outside of extremely few niche markets (anything mainframe), got left for dead (the PC - it used to be called "IBM compatible personal computer"!) or got spun off (Kyndryl). According to Wikipedia, IBM has 282.000 employees worldwide. What the fuck are all of these people doing?
    - ghaff 10mo ago
      Making a lot of money for the company.
    - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
      The no one ever got fired for buying IBM wasn’t about quality. It’s always safe to buy the default choice that everyone else uses. Especially when things go wrong. Many want to be founders here on HN don’t get that. Even if your product is better and cheaper, there is too much of a reputational risk signing a contract for a B2B SaaS product with an unknown vendor. On a completely unrelated note, for the love of all that is holy don’t try to do B2B SaaS without SSO support.

Xserve was always kind of a loss. Wrote a piece about it a number of years back. It became pretty much a commodity business--which isn't Apple.

by ghaff 10mo ago

Xserve was always kind of a loss. Wrote a piece about it a number of years back. It became pretty much a commodity business--which isn't Apple.

no_wizard 10mo ago

I always wondered what they were hoping for with their server products back when they had them. Consumers and end users benefit greatly from the vertical integration that Apple is good at. This doesn't translate with servers. Commodity hardware + linux is not only cheaper, its often easier, and was definitely less proprietary. Its also a race to the bottom type scenario. Apple would have never been able to keep up with server release schedules. Was an interesting but ultimately odd moment of history for servers.

ghaff 10mo ago
Companies were still figuring out Linux with servers at the time. Xserve seemed like it might be something of interest to at least academia but Apple never really had their heart in it as I wrote at the time.
ghaff 10mo ago
Pre-iPhone and pre-Intel Mac, Apple was experimenting with a lot of things. The iPod wasn't a clear initial win--and the iPhone wasn't either. A lot of the success happened in retrospect.

pstuart 10mo ago

With Thunderbolt 5 and M5 Ultras, Apple could be building lower cost clusters that could possibly scale enough while keeping a lower power budget. Obviously that can't compete with NVIDIA racks, but for mobile consumer inference maybe that would be enough?

raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
Apple just announced it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248644 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248644

simondotau 10mo ago

How is server hardware more "commodity" than MacBook laptops? Both are quite sophisticated and tailored to their audience in nuanced ways; both are manufactured at scale and face fierce competition. I don't think Xserve was a uniquely commodity business, it was a B2B service business--which isn't Apple.

JSR_FDED 10mo ago
It’s absolutely a commodity. The exact reason IBM sold their server division to Lenovo in 2014.
- mschuster91 10mo ago
  I'd rather say IBM got cannibalized by "financial engineers", this wasn't a decision made because of "it's a commodity". There used to be a time when IBM actually meant quality (that's where "no one ever got fired for buying IBM" came from, after all), but nowadays? A loooot of stuff is either sold (Thinkpad went to Lenovo, Lotus Notes to HCL), faded into irrelevancy outside of extremely few niche markets (anything mainframe), got left for dead (the PC - it used to be called "IBM compatible personal computer"!) or got spun off (Kyndryl). According to Wikipedia, IBM has 282.000 employees worldwide. What the fuck are all of these people doing?
  - ghaff 10mo ago
    Making a lot of money for the company.
  - raw_anon_1111 10mo ago
    The no one ever got fired for buying IBM wasn’t about quality. It’s always safe to buy the default choice that everyone else uses. Especially when things go wrong. Many want to be founders here on HN don’t get that. Even if your product is better and cheaper, there is too much of a reputational risk signing a contract for a B2B SaaS product with an unknown vendor. On a completely unrelated note, for the love of all that is holy don’t try to do B2B SaaS without SSO support.